terça-feira, 30 de junho de 2009

And an honorable mention to the movie Love Story

While on honeymoon I enjoyed one of the most romantic, lame and cliché movies ever.
Love Story (1970) is a movie by Arthur Hiller which tells a classic story of a forbidden love between up class Harvard Law student/hockey jock (Oliver Barrett IV/Ryan O'Neal) and Radcliffe music wonk (Jennifer Cavalleri/ Ali MacGraw).

It does not deserve to be on the list, but it does deserve an honorable mention. And the reason for it is simple: it contains all the cliché elements of a romantic movie such as the tragically simple script, the lame music (world wide famous piano excerpt) and the profound phrases ("Love means never having to say you're sorry"); however, it was this movie who introduced most of them to popular movies. Besides, it's an opportunity to get a glimpse at Tommy Lee Jones in his film debut

You should check it out if you have two hours to spare.

Back with 2 more wines

I'm back.
While I was away I enjoyed two very nice wines.
One is definitely better than the other but the two deserve to be mentioned here.

a) Wine #4: Callabriga. Another wine from the Douro Region. This one from Casa Ferreirinha.
Contrary to the other wine that I will mention here, this one was ready to drink as soon as the cork was out.
Here are some tasting notes (not mine) in Portuguese:
O Callabriga foi produzido na Região do Dão duma mistura das castas Tinta Roriz, Touriga Nacional e Alfrocheiro Preto, exprimindo a vivacidade sensorial característica da região. Apresenta uma cor vermelha profunda com aromas vivos de frutos frescos e maduros, e tem algumas notas resinosas e ervas aromáticas. Encorpado, é abundante e firme nos taninos, com a acidez viva. Esta acidez está ainda presente no final frutado e vivo.
They suggest this wine to go with meat, but for me it was a perfect company for a very nice gilthead seabream (Dourada).

b) Wine #5: Passadouro Reserva 2004. Once more, a fine Douro wine. This wine is clearly superior to Callabriga, uncomparable I would say. I coudn't find some tasting notes, aside from some common comments that I can certainly agree with: Rich full bodied wine, red fruit, vanilla.
It takes some time to be in a condition to be enjoyed. I waited almost two hours before I considered it to be ready, but it was definitely worth the wait. It is another wine by Dirk van der Niepoort, a dutch youngman who took care of the independent family business that exists in the Douro region since 1842. I still haven'd had a Niepoort wine that I did not enjoy.

quarta-feira, 3 de junho de 2009

Away for two weeks

For a very good reason, I will not be posting any message in this blog for the next two weeks.
I'll be getting married this weekend and will be away on my honeymoon for two weeks.

If you need me, you can try to reach me here :)

A presto

On Kings of Leon

A friend of mine kindly offered me a CD (I can´t remember the last time I had been offered a CD!).
The CD was from the band Kings of Leon, the album was Only by the night with a cover reminding a Rorschach test.
It was the first time I heard Kings of Leon, even though the name was familiar for some years now. I really enjoyed this album. THe music was very rich, with every song revealing an interesting detail that highly enriched it.
However, I'm still not able to say whether I will consider this band in my list of artists, because this is all I know about this album. And in fact, the friend who gave me the album told me that he personally didn't like all the other stuff by this group. I need to find out more about this band and will do it soon.